The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1887-01-29
PERSUASIVE BOOK AGENTS.
The Shrewd Individual Who In
duces People to Buy.

What enterprising young person
earning his or her own livin@ has moi
at some time tried selling subscrip-
ton book, gorgeous and much-gilded?
Few tenderly reared people succeed as
book sellers on the highway, and it is
now unanimously conceded by all these
dis PIP i1ted ones that success in that
line belongs to the shrewdest OF the
worlds people, and the WORK. should be
left to them. Easily, naturally and
fatally comes the sale of a booG
when the sharp book agent is on
the War-path, and when he meets
his prey only a skilled verbal fencer
can make his escape. Some men prove
easy prey, especially if the book is the
sort they want. A story is going the
rounds that the agents are made to
practice upon wooden dummy set up
for the purpose in the back offices of
the agencies. They imagine the figure
before them to be that of the most I'M
inpressible of their. customers, and
harangue with the Yehemence OF an
Anthony and the pertinence of a
Demosthenes. After they have
worked themselves into a fine frenzy
and are so hoarse that their
voices rasp like a saw on a nail.
they are sent to invade the homes of
America with their wares. The lady
canvassers are soft of voice and gentle
OF tread, but they cling like the mortar
to the brick and are apt to have their
way. They usually go about with a
bound volume, and the smaller the
woman the larger the book. When she
promises that her book will come in ten
parts at so cents part look out-she's
fooljng-that book W i come in twenty
parts, and you who are walking to save
car flare will curse the day
you yielded to her persuasions.
Fluency is convincing. even when it is
not eloquerce and if you let an agent,
man or woman, talk 81 bly, at you for
half hour you may yield at last from
sheer lack of stamina. The weakness
on your part is reached by the talk,
talk, talk, warmly sustained, of your
tormenter. ALLOW me one moment, ]"
says the agent, taking off his hat. mo
time; no time, sir" shrieks the lawyer,
who has not had case in a week. but
who is apparently a very busy man.
The lawyer is a weak-minded man,
and he buys the book to get rie
of the agent. Whether he will
eyer pay him or not is another mat
ter. The housewife and old maid
are the most wickedlv beset by the
vender of the subscription book. 1t
comes as the Road to Fortune" or
Household Teach-All," and comes in
chunks. The willy ;ent has learned
his little lesson Well while practicing on
the dummy. He says; Madam,
allow me to show you here a lit Q
book which takes like hot cakes-I'Ye
sold one at every house so far-Mrs.
Jane Smith bought one, your neighbC T
over the way. Mrs. Bridget Rooney
subscribed three minutes ago, not to
speak of Mrs. Smith, Mrs. HenshaW,
Mrs Ready buyer. Mrs. Neverpay, Mrs.
Novel, Mrs. Gardener-I won't detain
YOU three seconds-the best writers in
the country contribute to its pages-it's
an infallible guide to all hardWoTkii g
people-tells how to get rich with your
ordinary earning-glves advice on
etiquette and conduct thatu be ex-
pected of you after yOu practice what
This teaches and are rich-the best
poets-a light to the feet of the young,
comfort to the old-excellent formulas
for making inks, cure for tooth
ache. economical recipe for ginger
DT0au-Ldh0 Ou0i OuIS Ouc-du7I'cI
down, the rest in installments
whenever you please" The woman
has cake in the oven and she hears
her baby cry. Not to be meaner
than the neighbors she buys a
book, and at the half-hour of leisure af-
ter dinner her oldest son, Isaac. who likes
poetical selections,ss reads aloud to
her from it. such books are ground
out by hack writer's, who grind
out chapters on "Digestible COOK
cry" Courtesy" Mother" "oc-
tober, "Politeness," and How George
NJ. Pullman Got Rich" with a
versatility and fuency that comic"
play writers might envy. The book,
when purchased, is placed among the
piethoric bric-a-brac of the best side
boards, to keep company to the chalk
images that contrast well with its blue
covers and bright gilt edges. The sub
scriptIon book grows in favor instead OF
falling into unpopularitys and many OF
the best book in the market are sold
that way.